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Transparency concerns raised after four Longmont council members tour fire station with homeless advocacy group

By Madeline St. Amour

Staff Writer

Posted:
02/07/2019 08:19:24 PM MST

Updated:
02/08/2019 11:37:43 AM MST

Curtis Cramer, a part time employee with HOPE, pulls out sleeping mats in the gymnasium at Faith Baptist Church on Thursday. The church serves as a homeless navigation center for HOPE four days a week during the winter. Another local church, journey church, serves as the center the remaining three days of the week. (Matthew Jonas / Staff Photographer)

Advocacy group The Way Home invited four city council members to a tour of Fire Station No. 2 on Tuesday, raising concerns about transparency even though it appears the tour did not violate open meetings law. (Matthew Jonas / Staff Photographer)

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misreported that Councilwoman Marcia Martin was the only member of Longmont City Council who responded to a request for comment. Councilman Tim Waters also spoke with a reporter and said he went to the tour to learn more information.

Four members of Longmont City Council on Tuesday attended a tour of Fire Station No. 2, prompted by members of The Way Home committee who are looking at potential sites for a homeless services navigation center, which would include a shelter.

Other members of city council were unaware of the meeting until after it happened, triggering concerns over transparency.

"There's not been a policy conversation about it in the light of day," said Councilwoman Bonnie Finley, who was not invited to the tour despite the fire station being in her ward. "There needs to be transparency and there was none in this instance."

Jake Marsing, chairman of The Way Home committee and the person who invited council members to the meeting, said he invited those who were interested in the issue — members Tim Waters, Joan Peck, Marcia Martin and Mayor Pro Tem Polly Christensen.

Martin, who arrived late to the tour, was one of two council members who attended the tour and responded to a request for comment. She said the best idea she heard was that the building could be used as shelter for women with small children. Waters also responded to a request for comment, saying he attended the tour to learn more.

Marsing said the fire station, located at Hover Street and Mountain View Avenue, is one of several sites being considered as potential locations for a center.

While Marsing asked City Manager Harold Dominguez to set up the tour at the fire station, he was the one who invited people to attend. Marsing said he invited those who had previously expressed an interest in what The Way Home is doing.

"I'm glad that city leaders stepped up and care enough about this issue that they wanna know about our group," he said.

Initially, Marsing on Wednesday said two council members attended the tour. On Thursday, he said he was mistaken and didn't pay attention to who was there, confirming that the four council members he invited did attend.

Others in attendance included Dominguez and members of The Way Home.

"They wanted to be kept in the loop as much as possible," Marsing said.

Councilman Tim Waters was a HOPE volunteer for years, Marsing said, and Councilwoman Joan Peck was interested in the issue before she joined the council.

"I wasn't trying to lobby them or anything about this building," he said. "What this was about was, they expressed interest in our work and this was a milestone for us."

Marsing said he will continue to invite the council members to site tours, adding that he will invite all of council if Tuesday's tour was an issue.

Finley said she encouraged those in the community to vote yes on the bond issues, but now she is afraid she misled voters.

"I would never have done that had I known they were turning it into homeless shelters," she said. "I'm sure that the people who voted for those bond issues didn't think that those fire houses would be turned into homeless shelters."

Fire Station No. 2, which is up for relocation, is still operating. Dominguez estimates the space won't be available for at least two and a half years, possibly three and a half.

Since the bond passed, the city is "just now beginning the work" to search for locations, which will lead to several other steps that could vary in time, Dominguez said.

He made the time frame clear to Marsing at the start of the tour, Dominguez said.

In addition to waiting for vacancy, whoever buys the building would have to go through a planning and zoning process. The fire station is in a public zone, so it would need rezoning to become any kind of business or center.

City staff is not working on anything related to converting the fire station to homeless shelter right now, Dominguez said. The process for selling the building won't begin until the city puts out a call for bids to construct a new fire station.

Once the city gets to that point, it would follow land development codes and regular processes, which would include public hearings and/or neighborhood meetings.

"As an organization, once we get involved and we do something, community involvement is a significant part of what we do, generally," he said.

Dominguez added that if another group requested a tour of the fire station, he would try to accommodate the request. But, until the city gets to the point where it can consider selling the property, "there's really not anything we can do at that location."

Open meetings law

Dominguez said his office did not set up Tuesday's tour. He directed Marsing to Scott Snyder, an assistant chief in the Public Safety Department that manages the facilities. Dominguez found out the time of the meeting when he received an email invitation from Snyder.

He also saw that Waters had been invited, but did not see other council members in the invitation.

Dominguez also remembered council members discussing The Way Home and its interest in the fire station at the council retreat last Friday.

"When I'm dealing with another individual, historically we don't ask for an invitation list," he said.

If someone asks about inviting council members to an event, city staff will work with them, he said.

Colorado's Open Meetings Law, which discusses requirements for open meetings for local governments, states "any meetings ... at which a majority or quorum of the body is in attendance, or is expected to be in attendance, shall be held only after full and timely notice to the public."

Local governments are required to post notices about meetings in a public place 24 hours prior to the start time. A "meeting" is considered any gathering where people discuss public business. Given that the city council will eventually vote on selling the fire station, because it is owned by the city, the tour could be considered a meeting on public business.

It is not clear if the law applies in this situation, because Martin arrived to the tour late, so there was not a quorum — four, in Longmont — of council members at the station at one time. Four were invited to attend.

Marsing said he didn't see the tour as a "city meeting," and that council members were acting in a "private capacity" to see if the site made sense as a homeless service center.

"I guess I just don't always see those members of council as being in that capacity strictly," he said. "If there had been an issue, I would've hoped that the city manager would've stepped up and said, 'Hey, we shouldn't do this.'"

Dominguez said his office wasn't directly involved in the meeting.

'Very visible public meetings'

Both Finley and Mayor Brian Bagley said they don't believe council members or city staff were purposely trying to hold a secret meeting.

"I don't think there was any active, conscious decision to do something conniving or disingenuous," Bagley said.

But, the discussion about this issue — creating a homeless shelter for Longmont — should be public, he said.

"There has been absolutely no public discussion and there has been absolutely no policy-level decision made, including any inkling that involved the mayor, of the topic pertaining to: Should we fund or spend public resources on a homeless shelter?" Bagley said. "The problem I have, is that either city council or city staff made the decision to tour this facility with the possibility that it could be used as a homeless shelter, when there has been absolutely no public discussion or debate."

Bagley said he would have attended the tour had he been invited, but says the tour should not have happened in the first place, as a public building could not be used as a homeless shelter without city council action.

Bagley added that he didn't get any calls explaining that the tour took place after it happened.

While he doesn't think the tour technically violated open meeting laws, he said everyone should be more aware of the possibility of a quorum of council members coming together in a setting that could pertain to public business.

"I think it's a joint responsibility," he said.

He added that he would be disappointed and angry if "any elected official or staff member or representative of any nonprofit" was not truthful about the meeting.

This is a "huge issue" for neighborhoods in Longmont, Bagley said, and should be discussed in public first.

"I'm saying, 'Hey, this happened, I'm not blaming anyone,'" he said. "If this conversation is really the conversation that's ongoing, this needs to go from ... undisclosed meetings to very public, very visible public meetings, where there is public input, where there is city staff reaching out to collect survey results, where there is city staff holding community meetings."

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